Indian Army craves for the right BOOM

Will India be able to win another Kargil war? Over 400 155 mm artillery guns with their deadly firepower, bought from Swedish firm AB Bofors in 1986, helped India regain its hills in Kashmir from Pakistan in 1999. But with no induction of artillery guns since the Bofors deal was inked during the Rajiv Gandhi regime, will the world’s third largest army with Soviet-era guns and depleting Bofors howitzers be able to defeat its adversaries. At a time when China and Pakistan are busy equipping their armies with advanced 155 mm howitzers, India is too cautious to materialize any artillery deal after the alleged Bofors kickback scam.

From time immemorial, artillery guns, considered the ‘God of War’, have proved their mettle. Artillery not only provides cover to soldiers in the forefront of the battlefield but also weakens enemy’s strength by breaching their defences.

Even as terror factories are mushrooming along our western border and the Dragon dancing furiously along the eastern border, India’s artillery modernization programme remains stuck in red-tapism. The Indian Army recently decided to raise mountain divisions in the North-East only after seeing China developing infrastructure and boosting military strength along its side of the Arunachal border. But the army, it seems, has forgotten that soldiers without an artillery support are like sitting ducks.

After a long spell of over two decades, the need for artillery upgrade was first felt in 2008, when the defence ministry issued three global tenders for 155mm howitzers for the mountains, the plains and self-propelled guns for the deserts. As part of its over Rs 20,000-crore artillery modernisation plan, the army looked for 400 towed artillery guns (worth Rs 3,200 crore), 100 tracked guns (costing Rs 3,400 crore), 814 mounted truck guns (Rs 8500 crore), 145 ultralight guns (Rs 2500 crore) and 180 wheeled guns (Rs 4700 crore). Just when a deal for 120 tracked and 180 wheeled self-propelled (SP) 155mm guns was about to be concluded after years of protracted trials, South African arms manufacturer Denel, a leading contender for the contract, was found involved in a corruption scam in an earlier deal for anti-material rifles and was blacklisted . The other two howitzers in contention, Soltam of Israel and BAE systems (which own Bofors of Sweden), did not meet the laid-down criteria and the army headquarters recommended fresh trials. This set the artillery upgrade programme back three to four years.

In a fresh tender floated, BAE Systems, one of the favourites for the towed artillery contract, chose not to bid, citing ‘watered-down’ parameters that would allow inferior guns also to chip in and meet the qualitative requirements. Another contender, Singapore Technologies Kinetics, was not invited to bid in wake of allegations of its role in corruption cases related to the former chairman of the Ordinance Factory Board, Sudipta Ghosh. Till last year, the army had made four attempts to procure 400 towed artillery howitzers but all failed.

India’s plan to procure M777 howitzers from the US through the government-to-government route (foreign military sale) has also not materialized till now.

Pakistan, on the other hand, has been modernizing its artillery in recent years to bolster its mechanized formations. Using the garb of war against terrorism, Pakistan bought 115 used M-109A5 155mm self-propelled howitzers under a $56 million deal with the US in 2006. It had also locally manufactured Turkish MKEK Panter towed 155mm howitzers after getting 12 guns for evaluation in 2007. A combination of the Turkish Panter howitzers, along with the American AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder and Chinese SLC-2 radars, has improved the accuracy of Pakistan’s long-range artillery. The US-made M-109 A5 155 mm howitzers has given Pakistan an edge over the Indian Army, which is years away from inducting similar systems.

In 2004, according to a defence report, India had 4,175 towed artillery and 200 self-propelled guns while Pakistan had 3,952 towed artillery and 260 self-propelled guns—almost on a par with India. China was far ahead of India in 2004 as it had 14,000 towed artillery and 1,700 self-propelled guns.

Forget the facts and figures, even army chief General V K Singh admitted that the induction of modern artillery guns was not proceeding at a desired pace, saying “while other advanced nations have leapt far ahead in the field, we are still lagging behind”.

Some say the possibility of a war with Pakistan or China is remote as both are nuclear nations. However, one forgets that nukes are strategic weapons which are not meant for battle. In a conventional war, the real strength of an army is assessed with the firepower of its artillery.

We are already late by two decades in artillery modernization. It’s high time the army stood up and went for the government-to-government route to buy top-of-the-line howitzers available in the global market. If we don’t go for the right BOOM now, we are surely going to be DOOMED.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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Author

Surendra Singh is senior assistant editor at The Times of India, Delhi. Before returning to the national capital, his home city, he had spent six years in Mumbai. The journey from the city of politics to the city of dreams has given him an opportunity to learn from the experiences of people and witness the struggle of the "aam admi" in big cities. He often likes to share his views on developments affecting the common man. His subjects of interest: defence and politics.

Surendra Singh is senior assistant editor at The Times of India, Delhi. Before returning to the national capital, his home city, he had spent six years in M. . .